Saari
by finnjavel
Summary: After Alabasta, the Mugiwara Pirates arrive at an isle with a kingdom with a problem. And after the captain and his swordsman goes lost, how should the rest of the group handle the situation when the islanders are who they are? ZoLu, T, Adventure/Hurt/Comfort/Drama and other cool stuff
1. I

A/N: Hey, just a short intro then I'll stop bugging you before the end comes :'

So I decided to have a try in Fanfic area, my first fic here (No flaming, please?) and a HUGE THANK YOU to 0Blue-Bird0 for beta-ing this!

The name of this fic will be cleared at some point, do not worry :D

Warnings: ZoroxLuffy as the main pairing, and there will come a girl interrupting things, but still it's ZoLu whole time!

Rated: Teen... blood will be shed but not as much as M and I wont do explicit bc I really cant, so nope.

This takes place after Alabasta and Zoro is already his captain's lover. I really love their relationship described in this fic: s/6629234/1/Encounters so I had them be lovers for a long time :'D (I'm sorry aechfic for advertising your awesome fic without permission ^ ^')

I don't own One Piece, just the additional random characters I made up for this thing.

And this will get eventually complicated to explain later on, so I'm going to upload some pictures I drew to clear things and to give faces to additional random characters. I also really can't impersonate Oda-sensei's original drawing style so they won't be so much looking like it :'DD

This'll probably be somewhat max 10 chapters. Thank you for reading!

CHAPTER I

* * *

Luffy was sitting on his special seat and singing his a song he had made up about the idiots on the islands to the North. Just a half hour ago, Nami, had told everyone that the next island would be in sight in an hour. In other words soon it would be in front of them.

"An island!" Usopp shouted from the crow's nest some time after that. "It looks like there is a massive castle!" Luffy stretched his arm upwards as he tried to peek towards 12 o'clock. Usopp had the binoculars. So when he got up, his arm halfway there, Luffy snatched the binoculars from Usopp with his free arm and glanced at the island. It was quite small. The town was bustling with townspeople who looked like ants and the houses were built from stone. There really was a massive castle with its massive walls, and behind it could see only a tip of the green treetops. The wall reached the cliffs all the way to the left (west) side of the island and the sea rolled on the rocks which could barely be seen under the water.

"An island! With a massive castle!" Luffy repeated excitedly while jumping down from the crow's nest to make sure everyone could hear him shouting. Nami came out from the kitchen summoned by Usopp's first scream and she got almost flattened when the younger boy came down with all his rubber body's might. For her luck she managed to avoid her hyper captain, but Sanji, who was following Nami and talking something about an orange-haired, pretty and clever angel who always leads them to the right places, got rolled by the kid. Sanji flew back to the far corner of the kitchen. Chopper left his delicious drink, which Sanji had given him a minute ago, and ran to check if the blond man was alright. Robin lifted her eyes from the book temporarily and then lowered them again, because the island was far away and Cook-san was alright despite the straw hatted boy's collision with him. Zoro came in, lured by the noise and smirked to ero-cook's condition. Usopp came also down slower than his captain, curious about the plan for this island.

"Sanji-kun, how's our food storage?" Nami asked when everyone gathered around the kitchen table.

"Mellorine~! They are as empty as Luffy's head and our water barrels are running short. They should be refilled!" Sanji answered. blinded by Nami's queen-like nature.

"Usopp, what did the island look like?" She knew that asking Luffy wouldn't lead them to anywhere so she turned to the long-nosed boy.

"The buildings were made of stone, there was a castle, and north of the island there seemed to be a forest. There might be a well. I'm positive there is a well in the town but if we need to fill all of our tanks, I'm sure it would be too much to carry, and just a burden in the town." Usopp told truthfully and waved his hands as he spoke. Nami seemed to think a while and she finally shared the tasks.

"Alright, we do this; Luffy, Zoro, Chopper and Robin will go to the town to buy food supplies and everything necessary. You go through the town and we meet at the north side of the island. I, Sanji and Usopp will go around with the ship and Sanji-kun and Usopp will go get the water. Would Robin find out Log Pose's setting time?" She looked at the older female.

"My pleasure Koukaishi-san." Robin smiled her typical smile.

In half an hour Mugiwara pirates' ship left four of their crew on the pier. Luffy was jumping in excitement as he admired the size of the walls, and he was close to falling into the ocean. Zoro took a hold of his captain's collar and pulled the boy up before he touched the water. Chopper, who was in walking point, looked around him and notified the rest of them of something odd.

"All of the inhabitants have black hair."

There was no other soul on the pier besides Strawhats and they had been off the beam lights for now. The crowd near the pier had taken notice of the four guests and they had stopped. None of them knew if the inhabitants had seen a pirate flag on the ship they just had got off, but the crowd seemed to get bigger and bigger. Some even stopped their families to see the sailors.

"What the fuck are they looking at?" Zoro asked and now even Luffy seemed to pay attention to the crowd.

"Don't know, Kenshi-san but we should probably proceed with our journey." Robin reminded them of their mission and begun walking towards the town.

In the town residents retreated from their way and many had some trouble making way for them to move through and staring at them at the same time. The audience was murmuring quietly. A little girl was also staring and making way, but she fell down just in front of Zoro. The swordsman sighed in annoyance and crouched to help the girl up, so that the Mugiwara's could continue their journey. Before Zoro could help the girl, she rushed up so fast Zoro didn't manage to avoid her head bumping to his jaw with a loud crack which probably had hurt them both, and ran away.

The Straw hats, with Zoro on his other knee, watched at this reaction totally dumbfounded.

"What the…?" Zoro blurted out before realizing everyone goggled at his hair colour.

It took entire three and a half hours to go round the towns shops to get the necessary supplies and knowledge in this little town. Luffy, Zoro and Chopper were carrying massive bags on their shoulders and Robin had everything else acquired in her handbag. Luffy had bought a green ball which he was bouncing in his hand. The real reason why shopping tour had taken as long as three-and-a-half hours was because of their hyper captain who had done everything idiotic you can think of doing in the town. That and the inhabitants wondering at Zoro's hair colour. The Swordsman had snapped at both parties more than ten thousand times already.

"Luffy, come back RIGHT NOW or I'll come to kick your sorry ass and I'll have to carry you back to the ship in little bloody pieces!" Zoro shouted at his captain probably for the millionth time. The shopping trip had led them to the west walls and the rubbery boy had gone to investigate wall height to very near of the edge. There were no more people around them due the windy day, and no more disturbing audience to talk about green haired man.

"YAY, will Zoro come play with me?!" Senco asked innocently, not considering to his swordsman's short patience right now. Zoro delegated his pack to the doctor in Mass Point and left to relieve his three and a half hour's stress by chasing his captain down.

Luffy saw Zoro begin the chase and escaped giggling madly. He didn't quite catch why was everyone staring and making way to them, but he certainly did not like the way everyone looked at his lover. Maybe this chase helped Zoro to take his mind off of unnecessary things. He must've been extremely pissed right now.

The raven haired boy had made only five meters away when to the left of him, in the direction of the castle, was the sound of a cannon going off. Luffy barely comprehended what flew towards him as the black ball, size of a football, hit him on his left side and knocked him over the sea.

"LUFFY!" Two horrified voices shouted out.

* * *

Nami, Usopp and Sanji had sailed around the island in a fair fifteen minutes and boys had left the ship to get the water. Nami sighed in relief. Now she was in a blissful silence for awhile while the guys were away and she was so behind in her logbook. Better start immediately.

Usopp and Sanji were making headway in the forest in a calm speed. The weather was pretty and they were in no hurry. The shopping group wouldn't come back to the ship for a few hours. Carts were rattling and wood was humming as the cook and the sniper argued.

"Why do I have to pull these wagons?" The black-haired kid complained.

"If one opposes the cook he dies of hunger." The blond answered.

"It's uphill road. Come on! Push the cart!" Usopp kept whining and Sanji kept ignoring his pleas. This continued for awhile until guys felt someone watching them.

* * *

Satie is a local child. The days in this island were either boring or scary. Today was a boring one so she went in to the forest for a walk, because it's such a wonderful weather.

She is black-haired, as the others on the island, and short. Satie is always bullied for her height. Early this morning she heard the other children, mostly other girls, talk about it when they thought she was away. Satie didn't feel like going to hang around with them and pretend that she hadn't overheard the conversation, so she left to the forest, to the well inside the forest.

Usually no one was at the well and that's why it's such a good place. The other villagers would rather buy expensive water, which they got from the underground caves. But wasn't it one and the same where you get your drinking water from?

Two years ago when Satie had first found the well it was ramshackled and rotten. Nowadays it is in admirable condition because Satie has spent much time in there, fixing it every now and then.

Usually no one is at the well but today is an exception. Some people were going in that direction.

First she saw a long-nosed boy who had curly black hair and funny looking goggles.

Then Satie saw a god.

The sunlight fell just where god was walking and made his hair glimmer like gold. The God's right eyebrow was elegantly curved and he was wearing a black suit. Satie froze in her place to goggle at him. Never had she had seen hair like his. The god seemed to be debating with the nose man but suddenly they noticed her gaze.

Oh no! She should have stayed hidden! Now she couldn't adore The god anymore! She turned on her heels and begun running away from the god.

"Wait!"

And Satie waited because The God had told her to.

* * *

Usopp looked at the child. Her black hair was in a ponytail at the back of her head, and she seven at the most. And short one, alright. And for some random reason she seemed to adore Sanji.

But that doesn't explain why Sanji lets the child ride on the wagons while Usopp is pulling them!

"Oi, Sanji! It is your turn to pull the carts!"

"Is there really a well in this direction?" Sanji asked the girl, ignoring Usopp's demands. She looked at him but turned her gaze down quickly after noticing he had been looking at her.

"Yes. Satie visits the well almost every day." Apparently she spoke of herself in the third person Sanji realized.

"Is your name Satie? What a beautiful name. Excuse my late introduction; my name is Sanji, and the long-nose is named Usopp."

Satie blushed at the compliment. "Satie likes her name too!" She accidentally exclaimed, trying to say it as fast as possible. "No one is usually at the well but there grows loooots of beautiful flowers!" She waved her hands to express the amount of flowers.

"Ooh, what color are they? Why there isn't anyone at the well?" Sanji smiled. She was adorable and the less people the better.

"Purple flowers! And everyone buys their water from the town. Even if the well gives better and cheaper water. The water in the town is from the underground caves so it's more dignified." Satie smiled at her God and turned her gaze again off because God was smiling encouraging at her.

At the same moment they arrived at the well. It was in the middle of an open place in the forest and near the forest border were those purple flowers. Otherwise it was green and the sun shone directly down. Satie jumped down from the wagons and ran to the flowers picking them up at the same time Usopp and Sanji went lifting the water up. The barrels were almost full with water when Satie came to the well her lap full of purple flowers.

"To God—Sanji!" Satie handed her arms toward Sanji. He looked a bit surprised because of the word she used, but he didn't let the surprise be seen on his face. Satie probably hadn't meant to blurt it out since she was so shy, so he smiled at the little girl.

"Thank you! Would you mind holding onto them tight because we're getting back to the ship and in there I have a beautiful vase that looks like it was made for them! We can put them to the kitchen table."

Satie seemed to burst with happiness because her God had accepted her flowers. Satie also wanted to see where God lived.

The trip to the ship didn't take much time for everyone had got on the wagons on the top of the barrels (Satie in Sanji's lap holding tightly the flowers) and slide downhill right to the ship. Sanji passed Satie to Usopp and jumped in front of the carts to stop their movement. As Satie adored Gods powers, Sanji shouted to Nami-san about their comeback while unloading the wagons.

Nami was just about to have the map of Alabasta ready when she heard Sanji. She sighed knowing she would have to finish the map later. When she stepped out on the deck she noticed a little girl with a lap full of flowers with thw guys.

"Sanji-kun what's with the child?"

"Ah, Mellorine~ She is from the village! She picked flowers for me!" Sanji turned to face his turned also, and saw an angel too.

Nami wondered a little as the girl dropped almost all of her flowers upon seeing her and bowed quickly to pick them up.

"Alright boys, lift the barrels in the ship!" Nami encouraged as she dropped the ladder to help with the task. Usopp unpacked the wagons as Sanji asked Satie if she wanted to hop on the ship. She wanted to and Sanji lifted the little girl with her flowers to the ship.

"Nami-swan, you mind giving Satie a vase for the flowers? They would look amazing on the kitchen table, right? Vases are in the lower left cupboard." Sanji said.

"Alright. Beautiful flowers." Nami admitted and bend over Satie. "Hey there Satie I am Nami. Have you ever been on a real ship before?"

"O-only boats. They seldomly come around and I'm not allowed on them." Satie had to tighten her grip of the flowers to stop them from falling. When walking to the second floor she smiled. This day wasn't either scary or boring. It was wondrous.

* * *

An hour after docking Merry-gou in the pier the castle was in a hustle.

Pirates? In here? The skull mark was of the Mugiwara Pirates. Captain: Monkey D. Luffy, 30 million berry. Biggest bounty in East blue.

The captain himself and three of his crew are in the town. It would take 24 hours for the Log pose to set.

From the castle was a clear view to the town. High above the ground was the King's tower. His room was beautiful and the sunshine shone through purple curtains in the room where the man with the crown and the title of a King browsed the town.

The King followed concerned the pirates' path which was pretty visible due to people making way to them and the swordsman's green hair. He wonder if it was coloured?

But the King's concern was mostly with his own safety.

What if the Mugiwara pirates attacked the town? The King would send his men out.

What if the Mugiwara pirates fired at them from their ship? The King would send his men out.

What if the Mugiwara pirates attacked the castle and threatened HIS life? He would abandon his men as a decoys and make a run for it.

The King followed the pirate's path, concerned.

In three-and-a-half-hours the pirated were walking on the wall of the castle.

_They are breaking in to the castle! _The King thought. panicked.

"Shoot them! Shoot them with a cannon!" Soldiers looked first surprised. The pirates hadn't done anything wrong yet, mostly shopping, so why shoot?

The King glanced at them. Why weren't they shooting them already? "What's taking you so long? SHOOT!"

The soldiers made a hasty salute and left to their positions as quickly as possible. The King shouldn't be disobeyed.

The wall's location was near the lowest cannons. Soldiers prepared artillery weapon in thirty seconds and set off a warning shot just in front of the Mugiwara captain.

It was a shame that the little captain sprinted away from that amazing green-haired man just when the fuse was almost burned to the end and just in front of the barrel, just in the line of fire.

The black ball size of a football hit the little captain on his left side and knocked him over the sea.

The soldiers watched terrified as the raven-haired boy hit the water surface.

The King watched elated as the raven-haired boy hit the water surface.

* * *

Luffy's name didn't get to die on Zoro's lips as he charged after his captain to the roaring sea. Dark, salty water hit him hard and coldness stiffened his body. Not caring about distractions, he forced his eyes open to see even a glimpse of the boy's red vest. There had been a sneak attack, yes, but the kid had shaken the cannon off, meaning he hadn't fallen that far from the wall. Zoro would catch him for sure, like how he had caught him a billion times before.

The cannon had seemed to hit Luffy in the lungs and knock the breath out of him. As he rebounded off of the bullet's unexpected lift he hadn't got back the lost air, and he hadn't been able to see properly in front of him because of the loss of oxygen. The water had come to him too soon, too cold. The sea welcomed him with open arms. Luffy lost his consciousness after a few attempts to breath water instead of air.

Chopper was already trying to jump after Luffy and Zoro when Robin prevented him with her extra arms. Before the doctor could ask her why she had stopped him, Robin presented the reason to him.

"Kenshi-san would have to rescue Doctor-san in addition to Sencho-san. I'm sure he wouldn't be able to do that." The hard truth hit Chopper and he leaned against wall to see the first glimpse of the green and black hair which were sure to come anytime.

But no matter how much the little reindeer waited, those heads showed no sign of surfacing.


	2. II

CHAPTER II

Satie enjoyed herself on the ship.

"Ange- Nami? What does the skull on the flag mean?"

Angel seemed to consider the question. "Well, a skull flag tells the rest of the world that we're pirates. And pirates usually do bad things like rob harbours and towns." The orange-haired woman looked at the child.

"Do you do those kinds of things?"

Nami smiled. "What do you think?"

"You don't."

"Bingo."

Nami held up her map and looked at it from an arms length away. She was trying to finish it before her captain returned.

Satie circled around Merry-gou and couldn't get enough of it. The endearing little girl had watched Sanji cook first. then she ate everything he placed in front of her. Then she moved to watch Nami draw her map. The short child chatted with the navigator from time to time but didn't bothered her other than that.

The whole ship jumped at the sound of an artillery weapon.

"A gun! Are we being fired at!?" Nami ran to deck with Satie right behind her.

Smoke rose from the wall and further away, there was a splashing sound as a cannon hit the water.

They weren't being fired at but Nami couldn't help but feel a little ominous.

* * *

"LUFFY! ZORO!" Chopper's shouts echoed on the rocks while he desperately clung to the gray rock wall. Robin moved closer to see if her new captain had drowned.

Waves rolled everywhere and archaeologist wasn't sure where Sencho-san and Kenshi-san had hit the water. Neither could be seen or heard and Robin begun also to feel a little anxious. Regardless of the fact if a person had eaten an akuma no mi or not, that much time underwater would do definitely some damage.

The time passed and still no one came to the surface.

"Maybe they drowned." Robin suggested and found an unexpected bit of fear in her voice that she didn't quite care for.

"No way!" The little doctor had tears in the corners of his eyes as he tried to reject Robins theory.

"Maybe you're right; Kenshi-san would have come to the shore. Senco-san probably wouldn't because he has eaten a devil's fruit." Robin smiled carefully.

Chopped nodded, his heart felt like it was being broken and he couldn't say a thing.

"NOBODY MOVES!" Somebody ordered from behind them.

The two of them turned around despite the order and noticed spears were pointed at them. Soldiers flowed out of the castle before uniting in a half circle around the two Mugiwara's.

* * *

Seawater prevented Zoro's movements as he tried to swim towards the flash of red inside blue and black water. Coldness stiffened him up and water's flow was taking him into wrong direction. Rocks came out of the blue and he was unable to avoid some of them and after a while he had got too many wounds to count. But nothing would make him give up when before he decreased up the space between him and his lover.

As he got a grip of Luffy, Zoro noticed that the kid was out cold. A little blood wake come out of his black hair, meaning that he'd most likely he hit his head.

Zoro's lungs, reminded him of their increasingly bad well being by aching, and he could not move as well as a second ago.

At the same moment as Zoro begun to swim up desperately, he noticed they were going downwards. Even though he tried to kick and struggle up, the current dragged them to the bottom. And on top of that, they were spinning like mad.

'_Damn! Why now?!'_ Zoro thought as he gripped tightly to his captain to prevent him from slipping through his numb hands.

The world went upside down and horizontal then vertical, and the first mate didn't know where was up and down anymore. Swallowing sea water and scratching himself on rocks, Zoro's head bumped to a wall. That was what he thought at least. He fought the black darkness of unconsciousness sneaking up to him. Letting go of Luffy with his left hand, he grabbed Yubashiri and cut the wall.

The cut got suddenly bigger and swallowed the two of them inside.

Oxygen. That was everything he could register. Taking several gasps and feeling better he probed his surroundings without opening his eyes. Something was off. Luffy in his right hand, Yubashiri in his left hand, two other swords on his lap… so what was wrong? Still gasping breath he realized what was odd.

They were in a middle of a free fall.

Zoro made a vague sound, and tried to open his eyes.

He tried to open them again.

It was black; just a little light was coming from a distance. He could not see properly where he was.

...And his silent question was answered, when they hit surface of the water. Again.

This time they weren't even ten seconds underwater. Gasping, Zoro tried to hold his and his captains' heads above the surface. Trying to find firm ground under them he began swimming to the light. 'At the end of the tunnel' he snorted at the thought.

The time without air had affected him more than it seemed a second ago. He was out of breath in no time. Luckily, his leg hit the solid, smooth rock.

Breathless, Swordsman threw his capt'n next to him. Their legs were still in the cold water but Zoro just had to stop to catch his breath. The only thing he heard in the coldness was the waterfall (which they just fell from. The rock Zoro cut wasn't a wall. It was the bottom, he realized) and his own attempts to catch air. But they were the only sounds.

Luffy wasn't breathing.

Zoro almost had a heart-attack. Did he come too late? The green-haired man rose to his elbows and inched towards the younger one. When he was close enough his captain, he placed one hand on top of the other; directly over the center of Luffy's chest. Instead of pushing down with his arms, he let his body weight do the work.

Luffy made a choking sound. Zoro rose again, and pressed down again. This time Luffy vomited water out. Zoro pressed down one more time, and Luffy continued to gag. Zoro backed a up little to give the boy some space. While coughing, Luffy seemed to notice his swordsman next to him. His face streched with his usual smile.

"Did Zoro save me?" He managed to ask in the middle of a cough.

"Yeah, as always." Zoro smiled too.

Luffy blacked out second time, but this time he was breathing. Zoro would have to drag them out, the swordsman realized. Damn it, sencho!

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud noise of multiple pistols clicking about the same time. Looking up Zoro saw in the dim light about fifteen people pointing guns at them. Now, what the fuck?

"Who're you?!" A confused but determined voice asked from the middle of the group.

"And who the fuck are _you_?" Zoro asked, or rather panted.

"Take them into custody." The same voice ordered.

Zoro avoided the first attempt to stun him with the butt of a pistol and saw a fifteen year old kid aim the second attack.

"A Kid?" Zoro was surprised, and failed to evade the third and the fourth assault. As he blacked out he saw the surprise on their faces at his hair colour. Goddammit, was it _really _their first time seeing a green-haired man?

* * *

Siran Heidi, 20, is the daughter of the king of this island. She isn't like her father. She is arrogant, proud and she always got what she wanted.

The island was called Saari. It was a beautiful, and for an unknown reason all the inhabitants had black hair. Saari was just the cover. In upper Saari there weren't any crimes or violence because all the criminals were transported in the under Saari.

The upper Saari happened to stand on the top of a cave. Many centuries ago the cave was discovered, and many things were built there, under Saari.

Under Saari was a miracle. Seastone was the most common substance, and it probably created the enormous lamp-like dome on the ceiling of the cave. It was the only natural light there underwater. All the other lights were man-made.

Kairouseki was probably the thing that kept air breathable underground. There is this big bubble-like air surrounding the under Saari. If there ever was a hole at the bottom of the sea (or at the 'roof' of the cave) it closed itself by the time. There were also big fishes around the cave, but they avoided the air near the isle of under Saari.

There is also a prison under Saari. And Siran Heidi was the Empress of the under Saari. She was a cold-hearted woman. She had to be in order to survive in the underwater prison.

Siran Heidi also knew there were rebels inside the prison. Many of the prisoners had eaten an akuma-no-mi, but all that mattered was that they were locked inside. Handcuffs were automatically made of kairouseki. She was sure there was a movement of some sort inside the jail so she tried to keep tight control at all times. Sometimes, she just went to the jails and wandered in the corridors of the dungeons.

But still she couldn't find as much proofs of a rebellion of any kind.

"I'm going to the Prison no. 4 to check the jails, Mauri." Heidi announced to her 'friend'. If there was anyone close enough to justify using that word for her, it was Mauri. He always did as Heidi ordered him to do. Heidi knew he obeyed out of fear.

"Yes, Miss." Mauri answered. He wore a long black jacket and a white hat with a visor. He was 22 years old. As soon as Heidi-sama was out of the door Mauri sat down. It was more comfortable that way.

Mauri had eaten an akuma-no-mi years ago. He had done it for Heidi-sama, but he was lucky the fruit had worked out for him too. He didn't know which devil's fruit it had been when he ate it.

Now he has the power of the data-data-no mi and he was an information man. He could access into any knowledge, any facts, or cognizance. He liked how he could view that information on a monitor which only he could control. It made him feel like he had power over something something.

He had a crush on Heidi-sama. But he feared her more than he loved her.

* * *

Luffy woke up feeling very weak. He heard low murmurs around him and raised his head to look around his environment. The Murmurs died in the second that took everyone to realize he had woken up. The raven haired kid looked around him, remembering only bits and pieces of how he got there. First he noticed that Zoro was unconscious next to him. He was cuffed to the wall, arms held up keeping him in sitting position. He had blood on his forehead.

"Answer the question!" Luffy blinked and realized that a man had been shouting to him for a while.

"What?" He asked.

They were in a room. The room had one open wall and on the other walls there were more cuffs and the room really looked like a cell- wait it really is a cell. And the open wall had bars to prevent them from braking out. Only one thing was bugging him.

"If this is a cell, why aren't you on the other side of the bars?" There were fifteen men packed inside the cell. There was light coming from the corridor.

"None of your business. What are you two doing here?" A man, supposedly the leader, asked. He was a tall man on his thirties with a black, long ponytail.

"Saa-a, I'm not so sure. I remember being on a massive wall, you know, playing around. I made Zoro mad and he came after me… and… O! Yes! I got hit by a cannon!" Luffy smiled widely, wondering who could've shot him.

"You have a devil fruit ability?" Ponytail asked.

"Yea, I ate the gomu-gomu-no mi. I'm a rubber man." Then Luffy thought that maybe he wasn't in the best situation to be talking about things. Cuffed and all. "What happened to Zoro? Why are we here? Where are we anyways? How did we get in here?"

Ponytail was about to say something, which wouldn't be good judging from his irritated expression, when a shout was heard from the corridor:

"HEIDI DANGER!"

The leader got more irritated at the announce and gave out orders for the rest of the men.

"Cover up the green-head, shut the kid's trap, and get your cuffs attached!"

Luffy saw his Zoro getting a cap to prevent his hair showing, and a fifteen-year-old boy put tape over his mouth. Everyone grabbed their cuffs and locked themselves up. Three men disappeared behind a rock.

Curious about what was happening, Luffy tried to peek over a man next to him at who was coming. He heard a door open and close and footsteps.

The person wasn't in a hurry, and took their time. Luffy supposed the steps were made by someone wearing high-heels and two other people. There was a solid minute of echoes before the sources of the noise came into view.

She was tall and she had coloured red hair that fell all the way down to her hips. At the roots, it was black. She was wearing a matching red dress. She glared everyone in the cell. No reaction on her face as she looked Luffy, but her eyebrows scrunched a little when she looked onward because Zoro was ignoring her, mainly due to his unconsciousness.

"Hey, you! Look here!" She ordered. Luffy glanced toward his Zoro and saw also Ponytail, whose face was pale; this was not going as planned.

"You with the cap, look HERE." She ordered once more and halted. She was looking at something. Ponytail saw what she saw too. Under Zoro's cap could be seen a glimpse of his sweet green hair.

"Anybody move, and all of you will get electrocuted! Ray, get ready!"

As she opened the cell Luffy noticed that she had two bodyguards. The shorter of the two loaded his gun with a sound of a small beep and pointed it towards the cell. She was already inside, hurrying past Luffy, not giving him a second glance. Her hand snatched Zoro's cap away and his head moved a little making the green hair flutter.

Her eyes widened in amazement. She crouched a little for a better look and just as Luffy was going to tell her to leave him be, everyone has stared enough at Zoro for today, he remembered the tape over his mouth. Instead he grunted and moved just a little.

"I told you not to move." She pointed at him.

She studied his Zoro for a minute longer, touching his hair and raising his chin to get a better look at his face.

When she was ready, she called her second bodyguard inside the cell. "Bruce, take him with us."

The large one, Bruce, dug for keys from a pocket. She was already in the corridor waiting Bruce to come out with his cargo. Luffy thought he was hallucinating.

His Zoro was being carried away and he couldn't either speak or move. The captain begun struggling and shouting when he lost sight of his swordsman, first nakama and lover. He kept struggling until the last sounds of steps faded… and the door opened…. and closed.

His world just got carried out of the door.

* * *

Mauri was enjoying his private time playing with his ability. He moved the mouse icon on the screen which only he could see. Nothing new of the Alabasta incident… no, wait. There were new posters of the infamous Mugiwara pirates. Captain Monkey. D. Luffy, 100 000 000 berry, Roronoa Zoro, 60 000 000 beri… Wow, that was a lot. Mauri sighed and stretched his arms up towards the sky then behind his back a little.

Heidi-sama came in to the room the same second and Mauri stood quickly up to greet the Princess.

"Good day, Princess, your expedition was fast. Well, at least faster than yesterday's trip. Was everything okay? Did you run to any kind of prob-" His sentence died on his lips as Bruce placed Roronoa Zoro in front of him.

"-lems? What is this, Heidi-sama?"

"I need you to do something for me."

* * *

"He is like an empty shell." Basil informed his leader Pikol. The ponytailed Pikol didn't answer. He must have been thinking of why Heidi took that green-haired man. Basil turned back to this other invader. He looked just few years older than Basil himself. He said he had eaten a devil's fruit. So kairouseki probably weakened him so much that he couldn't break himself free when Heidi had left the jail no. 4. He sure looked like he could have pulled the whole wall down in his fury.

Basil looked at the ponytailed Pikol again. "What do we do now, Pikol-san?"

Silence. Then "Call your brother on upper Saari, we need more information." Basil got a baby den-den-mushi out of his mini backpack and pressed the button.

Buru-buru-buru buru-buru-buru *Gotcha*

"Hi, niichan! Satine here!"


	3. III

CHAPTER III

Chopper and Robin were caught in the middle of a fight, but with their respective Devil Fruits they were a good combination.

"Watch out!" Robin barely had time to warn her new comrade. Chopper quickly changed his form from the mass point to brain point. The soldiers he was fighting were baffled by his transformation.

"What the-" and "Clutch" and bones began snapping.

Chopper jumped under one soldier, changed back to mass point, and hit the soldier in the chin. The soldier flew few meters, and crashed on top of some more soldiers. Chopper was already beating up next ones, and Robin used her hands and legs to attack, and soon all the soldiers were either beaten up or escaped.

The young Doctor grabbed one poor soldier, who was making whimpering noises, and begun shouting at him in a desperate voice. "Why did you fire at us!? Now Luffy and Zoro are dead!" The soldier didn't know what to say.

"Th- th- the king ordered us to fire! I'm sorry!" The soldier began shaking, and finally Chopper let him go. Changing to brain point again, he asked with a tearful voice, "Robin, what do we do now?"

Robin thought for a second. "Let's get back to the ship. If they didn't rise to the surface here, they might possibly re-surface in another spot, and come to the shore somewhere else, and then attempt to go back to the ship. Come, Doctor-san." Robin knew she was giving little reindeer unnecessary hope, but he'd break down if he didn't have hope right now. They started walking. "You're right, Robin." He took a few steps closer to the raven-haired woman and put his hand in hers. Robin was a bit surprised, but she guessed he needed all of the sympathy he could get. Even from her- the newest crew member whom he still didn't know very well.

* * *

They saw Going Merry-gou from afar. Usopp was on the island, doing something, when he was interrupted. He saw his two crew mates coming closer. He started walking towards them when Chopper apparently couldn't hold it back anymore. He began crying out loud, and Usopp run the last few meters to them.

"What's wrong!? Are you hurt? Where are Luffy and Zoro?" Usopp began panicking when Chopper's cries get louder after he'd mentioned Luffy and Zoro's name's. Chopper's outburst made all of the people inside the ship come out.

Usopp picked Chopper up and carried him to the ship. Then everyone went back into the kitchen when Robin told them what happened.

A shocked silence lingered afterwards.

"They didn't come to surface?" Nami's eyes started watering slightly, Sanji lit a cigarette and went to the sink and began re-washing the already spotless dining plates, and Usopp was staring at something in front of him blankly.

Satie didn't know what to do. This was so strange and depressing.

"Angel, what if we go to the deck and look to see if they come back?" She went to Nami, and began tugging at her skirt's hem. Nami gave her a careful smile and wiped away her tears.

"Yeah, let's go." They sat on Merry's front deck. Satie tried to comfort the Angel by holding her hand and singing folksongs.

_"There they are, where they are?_

_Did you see? I didn't see._

_Fear the Fishes, the Fearsome Fishes_

_They come and eat you_

_If you don't run, and fast."_

Suddenly there was movement in the forest. Nami straightened up. Could it be them? She rose to her feet and Satie stopped singing. Scared of what would come out of forest, she clung to Angel.

Nami sighed. The rustling was too quiet to be the two teenagers; and her hunch was confirmed when a kid emerged from the forest's edge.

The kid was probably 12 years old, he had shaved his hair off, and he wore white vest with a hood, and on his back he had a backpack.

Satie stood up. "Brother! What are you doing here? How did you find me?"

"I was… at the well and when I was coming to the shore near here and I heard you sing."

The kid answered, glaring suspiciously at the ship. "What are you doing there? Come down. It's a dangerous place." He looked at the crew and their flag, and halted, understanding that they were facing pirates.

Nami forced a smile. "We haven't hurt your sister. Would you like to come aboard too?"

All the blood was immediately drained from the boy's face. He tried to think of how to get his sis out of there, and make a run for it before that witch would do anything bad.

"Yeah, brother, come! It's cool!" Satie encouraged him.

"Has Tammi changed her way of sending packages?" The boy asked suspiciously.

"Who-Tammi? No- uh- we're honest pirates, well, mostly honest… or I don't know." Anyway, what if Luffy didn't come back? What would they do? What would she do? Was this really the end of Mugiwara kaizoku-dan? This lame 'Our captain and his first lover-oops- mate, drowned so we had to quit.'

Satie's brother was still giving Nami a suspicious glare, but in the end he climbed up. They all went to the kitchen, and Sanji prepared some tea for everyone.

"I'm Derrick. Thank you for your hospitality" He bowed. His backpack was resting next to his knees, and all of them were drinking their tea -and Robin her coffee- in silence. Derrick thought that each of the pirates looked sad, but his thoughts were interrupted by nature calling. So he excused himself.

Just when he left, a den-den mushi began ringing.

It came from Derrick's backpack. Satie dug in the bag, and found the source of the sound.

Buru-buru-buru Buru-buru-buru *Gotcha*

"Hi, niichan! Satine here!"

"Oh, Satine! Where is Derrick?" A voice asked from the mushi.

"He went 'cuz nature called! Whatever that means! I can't hear it calling even when I'm trying to listen to you! When are you coming back home?"

"Hagaga," the boy on the other end laughed. "I'm coming back soon. Anything cool happened today?"

"Yea I got new friends!"

"New friends? What do you mean? This is an island. You should know everyone on this island by now."

"No, I got new friends! A ship came in today!"

There was silence on the other end, then a different voice came somewhere back of the den-den mushi's holder.

"My nakama?"

"LUFFY!"

All of the Mugiwara pirates cried out in surprise.

"Satine! Where are you!? GET AWAY FROM THERE! GET TO YOUR BROTHER!"

Satine was suddenly confused. This Luffy person was with his brother? Her Angel and God were bad guys?

"We won't hurt you, Satine. Just tell us where your brother is! Please, Satine!" Nami tried to reassure the girl.

"She got Zoro! I couldn't do anything!" Luffy shouted painfully from the other side of the mushi.

"Make him shut up!" a new voice interrupted in.

Satie's brother voice spoke "'If you have done anything to Satie, I swear I will-"

"Okay, give me the mushi'" Apparently this new voice took den-den mushi because his voice came through much louder and clearer than Satie's brother's. "Hello, hello? Who are you? What is your business here?"

The straw hats looked at each other. "We were led here by the log-pose." Sanji said out. "Why do you have Luffy? Where is Zoro? Why are they there wherever you are?"

"…By log? You probably would have been better off. Did Tammi send you? This is Pikol speaking." He must've thought his name would prevent Strawhats from lying about whether they were or they weren't sent by this Tammi person.

"No, we came here by coincidence. Can we talk to Luffy? How is he there? Last time we saw him he was drowning in the sea." Nami tried.

The group heard some noise in the background. Then there were sound of struggling.

"Is he alright?" Usopp asked, shifting his weight from leg to leg.

"He…is alright" Pikol breathed. "Now answer this question: who are you?"

There was another questioning look between the straw hat crew. Should they tell them that they were pirates and the strange men had their captain?

"We might be able to help." Robin mediated; choosing instead to ignore the man's question. "Who are you? Can you tell this island's name?"

"You are on the Saari isle."

"Ahh- I see" Robin paused. "Are you the rebels?"

"What?"

Everyone looked at Robin in amazement.

Derrick came in and saw Satie holding the den-den mushi, and saw that everyone had gathered around her. "What's going on? Did big bro call, Satie?"

"Yea and mister Pikol's got Luffy. The guy they were grieving for a second ago. And it looks like somebody took this Zoro…"

"Apprentice Derrick! Inform your location!" Pikol ordered from the mushi.

Derrick snapped to attention, even if Pikol couldn't see him, and shouted out loud.

"We are on a pirate ship, sir, North coast, sir!"

"Pikol-san, what if we do like this; we help you on your revolution. If it's true that somebody has kidnapped our crew member, and I'm assuming this 'she' is princess Siran Heidi, then we'll attack the castle. It might just help you too." Robin suggested.

"You are proposing cooperation."

"Yes. Our Sencho-san down there is eager to attack Siran Heidi, if it's true that this princess took our Kenshi-san. Believe me; he will behave seriously on this case. Let him help. Let us help. Let us take Kenshi-san back." Robin said calmly.

"What kind of help you think you can give?" Pikol sounded skeptical.

"Well, did you happen to notice that our Captain, Luffy, is worth 30 000 000 berry? He has quite the record and he's just beat Sir. Crocodile, a shichibukai."

"Shichi-" Pikol quickly began rethinking. "Alright, but we need more weapons. You need to go see Tammi."

Derrick looked at amazed at what just happened. These pirates were apparently pretty strong, and they just had stolen his job; smuggling weapons.

"Pikol-san, sir-" Derrick started, but was interrupted by Pikol.

"I'm sure you pirates are strong, but you need to take Derrick with you. He knows how to get the weapons from Tammi We have a deal, but some of your stronger fighters should stay here, because we need backup." Pikol had seemed to already know what Derrick was going to say.

The straw hats backed up a little to talk amongst themselves.

"Chopper should stay, in case someone gets hurt. Sanji and Robin are our second strongest fighters, so Usopp and I will go get the weapons." Nami said. The others agreed.

"Pikol we need to know, how many weapons you do have there right now." Nami asked through the den den's mushi.

"About half of what we need. So Derrick has all you need to proceed to the next island…"

* * *

A drop of sweat fell from Mauri's nose.

"You realize, if he wakes up before the data is fully complete, he might just rip my neck open?"

"Yes, proceed with the thing." The Ever-Merciless Heidi ordered.

With little wave with his hand, Mauri read through the green-haired man's life story. Siran Heidi already knew his name and would soon use it. Mauri moved his hand through the air as if her were typing on a keyboard, and pushed where the invisible enter button would have been.

"It's downloading, Heidi-sama." Mauri informed her. Then he looked closely at their scary guest.

She had told him to change this man's memory. With Mauri's ability it was possible. All he had to do was re-write some things and delete some others. He had done everything she had told him to. If the man woke up now, the data changes would stop the moment he -Roronoa- would open his eyes.

Another drop fell from his chin this time. The man was worth 60 000 000… He didn't remember hearing about this guy having this bounty. It must have been new.

Data change at 80%.

"He is in love, Heidi-sama... with his captain." Mauri glanced her. She showed no emotions. "It was quite strong, if data change is disturbed by any form, the new memories would not be complete and he would regain his original memories at some point."

"As you said. So let's not disturb him." Her voice turned from light hearted and airy to plain scary during the last sentence. It caused Mauri to quickly turn his head back to the swordsman, and see that his eyes were wide open.

He jumped. Zoro turned to glare at him.

Five seconds of silence.

First one to talk was Zoro.

"What are you doing, Mauri." It wasn't a question.

"I was worried… Zoro…-san." Mauri answered carefully. "Your head was hurt, so we brought you back." It sure looked like data change succeeded. Mauri had made sure the first thing he would remember was Mauri being a friend. Mauri certainly didn't want Roronoa cutting off his head after waking up.

Zoro's eyes wandered through the room. Mauri gulped: did the data change succeed? As Zoro's eyes moved, his brain was running faster than normal. The things in the room weren't familiar, even though his brain told he had seen them before; but Heidi didn't give Zoro time to think.

"It's good you're back~ Your injury wasn't bad, but when you didn't wake up I got worried~" Mauri was shocked. Heidi's voice _never _sounded like that.

"I'm fine. Stop fucking fussing." Zoro looked irritated and rose to sitting position. Looking around he asked, "Where are my swords?"

Heidi had taken them off of him just in case something would go wrong. "Here, My Zoro."

This time, his ears were telling him that something was wrong, But he couldn't put his finger on it. Not that it was surprising.

Thanks to Mauri's ability, he no longer remember his captain or his crew mates.

* * *

"We will come back in two days. Keep yourselves safe and find out where Zoro is being held."

Robin, Sanji, Chopper and Satie were standing on the shore. Nami, Usopp and Derrick left in the ship as it departed. Satie had Derrick's den-den mushi, and if Derrick needed to contact Pikol he would find a den-den mushi on the other island.

Nami had convinced Luffy through den-den that Zoro must be alright -because it was Zoro they were talking about, alright?- and that Luffy was with people who were able to help him find his first mate, and of course that Zoro was okay. Now Luffy would go find Zoro with Pikol and his men.

Not that they need worry. This was Zoro after all; and after the hundredth 'I'm sure Zoro is a-okay', Luffy was convinced too.


	4. IV

A/N Helou, an update for you, darlings. Here are the promised pictures of things and OCs. Totally appreciating feedback!

Go to this site and there are links of them -

archiveofourown(.org) works/ 679939 /chapters/ 1272556

This site won't let me put up links, so delete every space bars and () in the address :'(

Oh, god they look awful but after an hour of trying to fix them look nice out I give up. It might take a while for them to load, but they will eventually, because they are just quite big originally

* * *

CHAPTER IV

Underneath Saari is quite the place. The caves are all connected like a maze, and at the center is the isle of 'Under Saari'. The Maze itself is big enough for a giant to stand straight up without his head brushing the ceiling. There are always many small ferries and monster fishes flying through the air; and they're always either blue, red or green. Green fishes are always the most violent, red ones are less violent, and blue are most calm. Well, calm being a very relative term in this case, because they are all fearsome in general.

Isle of Under Saari is surrounded by air which these fearsome fishes can't stand. It's like a giant invisible bubble. Sometimes when a prisoner is sentenced to death they are tied and left outside the bubble on a ferry. Fefi (Fearsome fishes) will find the prisoner eventually.

One prisoner was sentenced to die like this. He miraculously got out the ropes, which had lengths of Kairouseki woven into them to make them stronger, fought the Fefi, and survived. He is the one who began the revolution movement and he is hiding in the somewhere deep in the jail system, between the rocks. Pikol is their leader now.

But right now, Pikol wasn't feeling anything like a leader. This …monkey… wasn't cooperating at all. He didn't listen when he was talked to, nor was he quiet when they were planning. When Pikol ordered the Monkey, the Monkey just turned to Basil. Basil also seemed to be confused by this attention but very pleased. All the other rebels were older men, and Basil didn't have anyone down here close to his age.

"Na, Basiru?" Luffy hung from the ceiling so that he was eye level with Basil. Pikol's fought back his rising annoyance.

"Lu-Luffy, I don't think now is the good time to—" Basil started to say, but he didn't get very far.

"But we're not doing anything. Come on!"

"AS I WAS SAYING, if we go around here, pass jails number 12 to 16, we will find this small hole where we can sneak in…" Pikol shouted, trying to get everyone's attention.

A green ball hit Basils head. "ITE, Luffy!" The youngest boy turned to the man he had shouted to fight over the ownership of the ball.

"It wasn't me it was Utif!" Luffy pointed the man next to him. Utif got pissed

"It was Luffy; I was trying to listen!"

Luffy jumped to get out of Basil's reach. "Shishishi, guilty as charged!" Luffy laughed in that absurd way of his, "It was me!" Basil stood up, reaching for Luffy,

...and got caught by collar by Pikol, whose annoyance had passed the boiling point. He also caught Luffy by his collar.

"What the FUCK are you doing? We're trying to discuss important subjects here like real adults, and you're just goofing around! Weren't YOU-" He turned to Luffy, "The one who wanted something BACK from Heidi the most? Why aren't you participating in the actual plan? Weren't you the captain?!"

"I was ready to barge out the moment I got released from your cuffs but you prevented me from going." Luffy stated as if the situation was entirely Pikol's fault.

But Pikol could already imagine it. Mugiwara barging out of this prison- making a lot of noise, of course-, getting lost and screaming for this green-haired man as LOUD as possible… Yup, good thing he hadn't let him out. This man was to predictable.

"Your crewmate said you would be serious about this attack." Pikol reminded Luffy with a forceful shake of Luffy's collar.

"I am serious." Luffy pouted. "I just don't get what's taking us so long."

"So you're distracting us when we're planning because you don't get what's the problem? Are you really the captain?"

"As much as captain as anyone can get."

Yeah. This man was an idiot, plain and simple. Pikol let go of Luffy with a huff.

"Basil, go play with him somewhere while we make plans. Don't go near the center."

"Y-yes, sir!"

The two went to the wall and behind a rock. There was a groove in the stone which led them out in the dim light of the Under Saari.

* * *

Zoro was sitting on a purple sofa.

Somehow today everything felt differently than usual. He had many memories of this place, but everything felt so new. He frowned.

"My Zoro."

The wrinkle between his brows deepened. "Heidi."

She bent her knees slightly, crouching over sofa's back, and putting her arms over Zoro's shoulders. "Are you sure you're okay? The head shot was quite strong. You're not feeling weird or something?"

Head shot. Right. "I'm gonna take a walk. Maybe that will clear my head."

He rose. "Do you want me to go with you?" Heidi stayed by the couch.

"Nah, I can go on my own. I need some private time." Zoro walked out of the door.

After that he exited from a slightly smaller door. His katanas were clattering as he walked and thought.

One little head shot wasn't a good enough explanation for this sensation. And what was nagging at the back of his mind every time Heidi called him? She had done it many times before. As long as he could remember.

He was receiving some looks from the guards who were standing in front of the jails. Oh, yeah, his hair still had an exotic color. Didn't the people here ever get fucking used to it? It must've been like this for ages at least.

Annoyed, he turned to go to the left. He wasn't in the mood to go anywhere that might be crowded. Dark alleys were made for him.

-As were clear blue skies seen from the deck of a ship-

Huh-, where had that image come from? Talk about strange.-

This just wasn't his day. Maybe he should go and train the stress out. So, then, back to center.

Wherever that was.

* * *

"Mauri!" Heidi-sama screamed his name at the time she stepped into the room.

"Hai, what's wrong Milady?" Mauri asked as respectfully as possible as he tried to not to piss her off.

"Zoro is thinking too much. Far too much. I think he might be remembering some... unnecessary things."

Ah, so this was about _him_ again. "His brain just needs time to get used to the new memories. You don't need to be worried."

Heidi still seemed to be dissatisfied but let the matter be for now. "Fair enough, but he seems to be avoiding me." She frowned before apparently deciding on something. "Well I'm off for a walk." She said before she left to go after Zoro.

Mauri was a little envious of Zoro-san.

* * *

"The hole is totally closed! How is that possible?" Luffy asked while viewed the ceiling in what dim light there was.

It was true. The hole where Zoro and Luffy had come in was closed, because water was not pouring in the cave anymore. Luffy and Basil had come to the shore to the exact place where they had landed.

"Yeah, The Saari heals itself somehow. The hole your swordsman made was closed. It's good, because if it didn't, we would drown here after a while." Basil talked.

"When we find Zoro, how will we get out of here?" Luffy threw a few stones into the water.

"There is a lift in the center which leads to the upper Saari. That's how the prisoners are transported up and down. Food supplies come through there too."

Luffy's stomach to that moment to remind him of its well-being by making a discontent sound. "Basiru, I'm hungry."

"Hagaga! Let's go back for food, shall we?" He turned on his heel, and noticed someone standing few meters away from them.

The kid got out his gun in no time; he had the same well trained reflexes as the rest of the rebels. He noticed he was pointing his pistol towards a green-haired man.

Luffy turned around at the sound of a pistol clicking. He saw Basiru pointing a gun at his first mate.

"Zoro?! How did you get away? How did you know I was here too? " Luffy asked in a loud voice, while closing the distance between his swordsman and himself quickly, needing physical contact from him.

His swordsman cocked his head to the right, and asked a startling question.

"Who are you?"

Luffy froze in his place.

Luffy's head was beating in time with his heart. What had they done to Zoro? Why didn't Zoro recognize him? Luffy didn't understand. Even the world seemed to slow down.

"What…"

"My Zoro!"

There she was-!

* * *

Basiru startles violently, but Luffy barely notices either of them. Zoro doesn't know who he is? What is going on?

Everything slows down even more. Basiru grabs the front of Luffy's vest and dives behind some nearby rocks. Hiding.

Why are they hiding? She is there and if Luffy beats her down, Zoro will get better, so why hide?

Like a sleepwalker, Luffy tries to stand up. But Basiru seems to have realized what Luffy is thinking, and he pushes him back down, with a pistol jammed against his throat.

Kairouseki is in the pistol's tip. Luffy can't move.

"What are you doing here?" She asks Zoro.

"Trying to get back to the center."

"It's in the opposite direction. Come, my Zoro."

She grabs Zoro's arm.

Luffy can't even make a sound because of the kairouseki on his throat. Zoro is his!

They vanish in to the darkness. Zoro looks behind him just once at where he'd seen Luffy and Basil just seconds before.

Basil can't stop trembling. It is the second time he's seen Heidi. She's a demon from a nightmare. Basil had panicked when he'd heard her voice so close to them.

He felt sorry for Zoro; mostly because he had hit him on the head the first time they met after Zoro had rolled too closely to him. Well, they had been ordered to take him into custody, but still, Basil felt sorry for the man; even more so now that the moss head was in the claws of Heidi.

Luffy was slowly choking under his pistol so he removed it.

Whoa, what did it feel like to hear that your love doesn't know who you were? Judging by Luffy's face thouhg, like hell.

Luffy took Basil's chest and pulled him closer.

"Don't stop me next time." And Basil couldn't help shiver when he saw the pure rage in Luffy's eyes. "I swear I will kill her."

Basil started thinking that if he hadn't stopped Luffy, then they would have one worry less right now.

* * *

"Do you know a kid with a Mugiwara?" Heidi tensed up from her seat on the same couch they had left in the beginning, so Zoro assumed he'd hit the mark. "Who is he?"

"He is…" she forced a smile "…no one. Did you imagine him, or what?"

"So he doesn't exist?" But he just saw him. What the-? Zoro let out a 'tsk' and walked to the door.

"Where are you going?"

"Bathroom."

Heidi sat still and watched the man walk away. When he was out of sight, she hurried to front door. A large bodyguard stood before the door, asking if she needed him to go with her.

"No, Bruce. Wait here and don't let anybody in or out while I'm gone. Understood?"

"Hai, Ma'am."

She walked quickly down the hallway. Prison no. 4 had contained her Zoro and she remembered the strange boy next to the green-haired man. He had a mugiwara and weren't they the Mugiwara Kaizoku-dan? So She had had 100 000 000 beri man in her dungeons without her knowing it. And how had her Zoro even slipped down there in the first place without her knowing anyway?

* * *

"—and the hole closed up today six hours ago—"

Soldiers in the guards resting room laughed out loud.

"Was the hole in the ceiling?"

Her entry silenced the whole room which was filled with laughter a second ago.

"Y-yes, Ma'am, it was indeed." A soldier took off his helmet before speaking out loud. "It appeared out of nowhere around noon and was gone in half an hour… We didn't have time to investigate it closer, where it came from, or who made it, but none damage happened to the town so we let it be."

Aha, so that's how the two pirates had came down. She left the building and the soldiers let out a breath they hadn't realized they had been holding.

As she made her way to the 4th dungeon she thought. What were they doing there? To help the rebels? Were there more Mugiwara kaizoku in upper Saari? How many there were?

She had reached 4th door and was already down the stairs.

The cell where Mugiwara no Luffy was supposed to be didn't contain him. She double checked the cell and surrounding ones.

"You!" She pointed at the man next to Mugiwara's empty cuffs. "Where is Mugiwara no Luffy!?"

Whole room seemed to draw in a breath.

The man next to Mugiwara's empty cuffs… He's name is Utif, if Heidi remembered right; sentenced 5 years for a robbery. He looked incredibly panicky, but remained silent.

Heidi slowly raised her index finger, threatening him.

"Answer. Now."

"I- I- I don't kmnow… y- yours ma'amity— don'rt pwleass- " He coughed several times, trying to shield his throat and being unable to do it due to handcuffs above his head. Then he seemed to suffocate.

Heidi killed him without batting an eye.

"I'm going to kill you all, one by one, if nobody is going to talk." Her finger pointed this time Pikol. "Talk." He coughed also a few times but stood silent while suffocating. "I assume you want to go next then" Heidi rose the pressure and Pikol begun to turn blue. If he wouldn't answer in ten seconds she would kill him, Heidi thought.

Not wanting to wait that long, she started piercing through his throat but got disturbed by a den den mushi's ring.

Letting the pressure drop, Pikol begin breathing again heavily. She dug her den from a little bag on her waist.

"Miss?" Bruce asks through den den. "The King is asking for a quick audience. He is in the center. Should we tell him you will meet his Majesty later?"

"No, I want to see him. I need to ask him a few questions. I'll be right there."

"Yes, ma'am."

Heidi glared at Pikol.

"You got to keep your life for a little longer time. See you later." She left.

Pikol, still recovering, took off his fake cuffs and begun massaging his throat as a large rock moved off and revealed a hole behind it. From the hole came Basil and Luffy.

"Huh? What's up? Why is everyone looking so serious?"

* * *

This just wasn't Zoro's day.

He just can't seem to find the bathroom, even if he knows exactly where it is. Looking around he recognizes the large corridor with curtains on both sides. Wondering why the hell the place contains curtains when they're underground, he hears a low voice from behind one curtain he stops suddenly. The voice belongs to the King if Zoro remembers correctly.

"…all kinds of Mugiwara pirates rampaging through the upper Saari…."

Zoro jumps slightly and moves closer to the curtain. Who is this Mugiwara kid? A pirate?

"What am I going to do? My soldiers aren't strong enough to oppose them, a woman and a furry creature beat all of the castle's soldiers and whole island is on uproar…."

"Calm yourself, father. I'll lend you some of under Saari soldiers. They are stronger because they follow different training methods. You people up are such slackers." Heidi spoke confidently, although the last part was said under her breath, and Zoro felt a chill go up his back.

Suddenly there was a knock, and a large man seemed to appear out of nowhere. "Ma'am?"

"Talk, Bruce."

"A message from upper Saari. The Mugiwara ship has departed from island."

"…! Departed?" Heidi hissed. "But they have members of their crew down here! Why should they depart?"

So Zoro really did see that kid then. But how had he recognized Zoro, and why had Heidi lied about him?

"Ah, isn't that a wonderful piece of news! I shall then take my leave, my dear daughter. The danger is past us." Zoro heard a chair move.

"…! Father I don't think this is over yet! If we search through the upper island I'm sure we'd find the missing-"

"My dear daughter, are you sure, because if there is no ship, there is no danger, and if there is no danger, the under Saari soldiers are not needed."

"Yes, but I know something that the pirates wouldn't leave without…"

And suddenly the King came out of the door, right before Zoro. Zoro didn't move an inch and the King halted. The king seemed to notice swordsman's hair colour, and his face turned about the same hue of green.

"YOU!" He screamed an octave higher than Zoro would have ever suspected the old man of being capable of. Heidi came in just after her father, and everything clicked in her mind.

"What are **YOU** doing down here?!" His voice rose and fell rapidly. Nothing nice to listen to.

"Ah, father, you are mistaking him for someone else!"

"No, Heidi-chan, I am not! This man-!"

"Yes, you're mistaking him, now-" Her voice seemed to freeze over again and the king's face turned from green to blue "And, if you'll please excuse us father. Bruce, escort my Zoro out."

"Eh?" Zoro said.

"Eh? But my dear, he-"

"Father."

"Escort me? I don't need escort. Who the fuck you think you are 'escorting' out…"

Heidi and the King stepped back in to the room, and closed the door properly. Zoro glared at Bruce.

"Touch me and I kill you." He swore and begun walking in the same direction where he came from, mumbling something about 'escorting' and 'my ass'.

* * *

"Was Zoro with her?" Luffy asked anxiously.

"No, she was looking for you alone." Pikol answered as he changed Utifs fake cuffs for real ones because soldiers would have to pick up the body eventually. "I would recommend you to stay hidden behind the rock for the two days while your nakama are getting the needed weaponry for us. I am emptying the whole cell because the woman will be back interrogating us in no time, and I can't afford any more dead men before the real attack on the castle. We will wait for the support on the ferries around the under Saari. We also need to steal more den den mushi's. Sanoja," Pikol turned to a blond man, "inform other cells and tell Korry to find nearest ferries to stay on and…"

The talk went on and on and Luffy couldn't concentrate on it anymore. He inched closer to the removable rock hoping for no one to catch him.

Maybe it was his suspicious aura which gave him away. Pikol didn't even need two seconds to realize Luffy's voice was missing.

"Halt, Mugiwara! If you wish to help your crewmate then do as I have said, for if you don't he just might be out of your reach!"

Luffy unwillingly agreed and stopped where he was. All the buzz around him took just a couple of minutes and then everyone in the cell was ready to leave to the ferries. Boats were waiting for them by the shore with more men preparing to leave. Ferries were just outside of the bubble, in the area of Fefi. By using a simple aroma of curry the Fefi can be avoided. The fish don't like anything spicy.

On the ferries people begun to build mini camps and spread the curry aroma around. After awhile everyone's noses got used to the aroma, and no one even remembered the curry anymore. Luffy was standing near the edge of the ferry they were, and in the dim light of the Under Saari he saw a path of rocks connecting 6 large ferries. Jumping over the edge, he stepped to the rocks and safely arrived to the next ferry. He amused himself for awhile, trying to see how many rocks he could jump over, but grew tired of the game after jumping over all the skerries a few times.

Then he just settled down on the furthest ferry, facing town. He stared at it intently until he dozed off, for it had been a long exhausting underground trip where no sunlight could tell them how much time had passed.


	5. V

CHAPTER V

After a day's worth of travel, Nami, Usopp and Derrick arrived at an island north of the Saari. Upper Saari's little sailing shop near the port had sold them an Eternal Log Pose that pointed to the north. The northern island was called Saareke and it had been a part of Saari a long time ago. Over time, ocean currents and the shifting of the ocean's surface had separated the two.

Saareke was also inhabited by black haired people.

* * *

Nami watched the bustling town in front of her with awe. Going merry-go sat peacefully by a dock.

"So, Derrick, what was our contact's name?" Nami asked while she watched the people on the dock very carefully for any suspicious behavior. Usopp watched Saareke's people just as closely; if not even closer. From the little he had seen in Saari, the people of the southern island were a more sad, and hopeless people, and here in the north everyone seemed to be bursting with life; smiling and shouting happily. If they were to assign colors then Saari would be a dull, ugly grey, and Saareke would be a bright orange. He wished that one of the monster trio could have been here; just in case a fight broke out.

"Tammi." Derrick answered. "And I think she will find us in no ti-"

"And may I ask what's yer business in the north Saareke?" A woman with a rough voice asked -actually ordered-, the tone of her voice was nothing but demanding.

All three heads turned to face her. She was a well-built, lively woman with braided black hair all the way to her lower back and piercing brown eyes. Her firm stance and her folded arms, resting over her armor breast plate, indicated that pirates, or strangers of any kind, weren't welcome in her town. The miniature army behind her had faces that also promised trouble.

Derrick stepped in front of the lady. "Tammi, here a-"

But Derrick didn't make it to the end of the sentence before she had recognized him and grabbed the boy's head in an embrace that smacked his head against the hard surface of her armor. "Derrick! It's so good to see ye! Why did ye come here? Why are you on a pirate ship? How'd ya get on a pirate ship? How are Basil and Satine? What 'bout Pikol? Is Siran Heidi still a pain in the arse?" And the whole monologue she had his head in between her hands, and while she spoke, she shook him lightly. Well, she meant for it be that way, but his head was swinging back and forth and his teeth were clacking.

He grabbed her hands and wrenched them off of his head, and paused to collect his thoughts while she still kept on babbling. "Tammi, calm down, I-"

But he was cut off again when a soldier behind Tammi coughed and pointedly nodded at Nami and Usopp. Tammi turned to see if somebody had caught flu.

"Ah! True! Pirates!" She shoved Derrick behind her, "Why did you have my nephew in yer ship?"

Momentarily stunned Tammi, both Nami and Usopp blinked a few times before Nami cleared her throat.

"Yes, we came to deliver a message from Pikol. He-"

"Well, you seem to know Pikol, tell me what has he to say!" Tammi said, louder than necessary. But it seemed like she talked like that 90% of the time.

Nami looked dissatisfied. "Well I was about to but you just had to interrupt me, did you?" She sounded just a little disgruntled. _Just a little._ "As I was saying, The carg-"

"You know about the cargo? Who is this little lady, Derrick!" Tammi turned to see her nephew. Now Nami looked absolutely pissed. Usopp moved next to her in case she needed to be held down.

"Aunt, you have to list-" The boy began.

"That's probably right. Hey, candyhead, what did Pikol say!" And again with the 'not really a question' question.

"Candyhe- Is she _serious_?" Nami practically shouted at Usopp.

"Hey- Hey, Nami, let's not get in a fight in less than five minutes after landing. That's worse than Luffy, really. Nami. _Nami_." Usopp grabbed her fist for insurance.

"Pikol asked for us to deliver a message to you! They need weapons fast, they're planning on att-" Nami started.

"Wha! Really! Was about time! I've wanted to kick Princess' arse for a long time now!" Tammi pumped a fist in the air. And the next second Nami was at her throat. Usopp glanced at his Nami-less hand for a second. "Oi! Nami!"

Luckily no real harm was done. Usopp had acted on instinct the second he'd realized Nami had escaped -and Derrick was right behind his aunt- and nearly got a black eye for his efforts before the guy from before, who had pointed out Mugiwara pirates, grabbed Tammi's hands from behind. "_LISTEN TO WHAT PEOPLE HAVE TO SAY, IDIOT-BRAID-HEAD!"_

"WOW, CANDYHEAD CAN FIGHT!"

"STOP IT THE TWO OF YOU!"

"NAMI, BEHAVE!"

Everyone sighed after the fight died down.

"So, we are going to a battle." Tammi smirked.

"No, you're going to give us weaponry we need." Nami smirked back at her.

"What if I don't give ye weapons if ye don't take meh army with you?" Tammi put her hand on his knees, leaned closer, and smirked even wider (and really, Usopp felt really terrified).

Nami put also her hands on her knees and Usopp didn't see her face, but he would bet on his sling that Nami's smile grew wider. "_Ye_ all won't fit our ship." She mimicked.

That seemed to take her aback. "Shit." She seemed to think for a second or two but no good comebacks came to her. "Candyhead."

"Idiot braid."

This time the soldier behind Tammi was ready to stop her from going after Nami's throat.

* * *

Satie watched in awe when God filled his lungs with smoke and blew it out. He had such smooth movements!

They had set up an emergency camp by the well. Satie had collected almost half of the purple flowers and wove them into the cute little buns she was making in Robin's hair while Robin read. Chopper had found the plants interesting and was currently investigating the flowers' reactions to the chemicals he had snagged from the Merry before its departure. Sanji compulsively smoked one cigarette after another. There wasn't even a kitchen near them so he could take his mind off of things.

At least no crewmembers were dead. Thank God.

Nightfall came before Nami-swan called, as promised. She had said something about calling before they would depart from the other island, but Sanji had only heard that she would call him. Satie had had to go home for the night but she had promised to bring food to them in the morning. Sanji had told her to only bring the items that he jotted down in a list for her, and he himself would go hunting in the morning.

The morning came, Sanji found some nearby animals, and cooked with the ingredients Satine brought from her home -'How graciously he cooked! Even in the woods!' –Satie thought dramaticly- before the Nami-swan's 'Promise of Calling Him' happened.

*Gotcha*

"Sanji, Do you hear me?"

"YEEEES, NAMI-_SWAAN~_!"

"In addition to what we have planned, we are going to have to delay the departure, because we've got a new plan instead of what we had agreed on. Hear me out…"

* * *

Her Zoro looked awful.

No, no, her Zoro looked absolutely _pulchritudinous_, but he hadn't slept at all the first night they'd gotten together so he had gotten little bags underneath his eyes. It was currently 7.00 am. Heidi stretched seductively next to her Zoro. He turned his gaze from the roof to Heidi and watched without reaction as she threw her left over him, and climbed on top of him on the glorious bed she hadn't shared before -but he didn't have to know that-. She leaned forward to connect their lips.

Her Zoro, despite his lack of sleep, avoided her lips in the narrow space they had.

"Not in the mood, my Zoro?" Heidi asked, visibly disappointed.

"Whatever." He sighed and closed his eyes still not touching her with his hands.

She laid her head down on his chest and listened to his heartbeat, wondering how he had gotten the scar across his torso. Now that she was this close to him she actually saw other little scars all over his body. 60 million berries, he had to be a real _fighter._ And she liked when her toys fought her back.

Slowly she slid her hand up his arm and to his neck. With her perfectly manicured nails she scraped him a little by his collarbone. He opened his eyes quickly and eyed her suspiciously. She lifted herself a little, not breaking eye contact, before she looked down at his chest, and slid her tongue up his collarbone and scrape she'd just made. That's when her Zoro decided to grab her arms.

"Not in the mood." He said glaring her.

She went limp before surging forward for his lips. "Well, you're going to have to stop me one way or the other, because I _am_ in the mood."

Inch before their lips would have crashed together, he lifted her like a feather, and easily flipped their positions, pinning her down. She smiled wickedly.

"That's my boy," She managed to say before she realized he was out of the bed and putting on a shirt and his katanas.

"Going to find something to eat. Have fun in your mood." And he was out of the room.

Well, that was just the right thing to better her mood; an escaping prey.

* * *

Zoro wasn't in _any_ mood. He searched for dining hall for about three hours, and by the time he finally got there he was starved. His appetite died after he found that walking out of the master bedroom that morning hadn't wound down Heidi's _mood_, for fuck's sake. She was right there after he'd gotten a plate for himself; right behind him, giving him the feeling similar to invisible needles in his back, with her _mood_. He had got out of the dining hall and gone to the gym.

After getting lost, finding the gym, abandoning the gym -for the sake of the _mood_ that was literally _everywhere-_, going for a 5-hour walk, finding something to eat -with the soldiers in the small area of time he had managed to lose her- and finally going back to the center, he succeeded in losing her for good. Travelling by foot to the shore where there were a few buildings, large rocks and a few boats docked by the black water when he finally sighed in relief.

Being underground had really fucked up his senses but Zoro estimated that it was close to 11 pm. What a blissful silence. Hallelujah.

That's when he heard a faint sound coming closer. He realized that it was screaming.

Screaming turned to be exactly what he heard because not a second after the voice went from barely audible to very noisy, as if his lungs were nearly out of his mouth along with his heart. A mass of limbs hit his right side and he tumbled to a stop tens of meters away from where he was originally standing. Mentally beating himself for not being more wary -well he'd never gotten hit with an attack like that before- of invasion from the depths of the labyrinth, he quickly rolled over and unsheathed his katana, before pointing it at the intruder.

Only to find that the intruder hadn't let go of him the whole time, and was shouting enthusiastically into Zoro's ear.

"You're okay! You're here and I won't let go of you. Do I still have to beat up the lady Hady or whoever she was, 'cuz you're mine and I'll will kick the ass of everybody that tries to take you away, cause you've never gone far away from right? You said you'd make me the Pirate king and then become the best swordsman that Grand Line had ever seen and I'll help you become whatever he needs to be but it won't happen if somebody try to take you away-" And the ranting just went on and on until Zoro put a stop to it.

"Let. Go." Zoro said threateningly.

The ranting stopped. The boy put some space between the two of them -but didn't let go- and checked Zoro's face for injuries. Now Zoro saw that this was indeed the pirate Heidi and the king had talked about earlier. "Let. _Go._" Zoro warned again and if he had to warn him for the third time the boy would also lose an arm. "Zoro?"

Deciding that he had given the boy enough time to let go of him, he cut the boy clinging to him.

The cut wasn't deep -he'd hit the left bicep-, but the boy's face practically screamed that he had just cut him deeper than the little flesh wound would lead him to believe. "_Now._" Zoro didn't let the face deceive him. Still the boy didn't let go.

This time when Zoro attempted to cut him, the pirate wrapped his arms around Zoro's in a way that wasn't possible for a normal person, and squeezed Zoro until he dropped his katanas. A devil-fruit user, Zoro realized, he should have seen that. He dropped on the ground and began to wrestle with the guy in an attempt to reach his swords. The boy was clearly winning this wrestling match, but Zoro wasn't going to let himself lose today.

"No, no, no, Zoro's acting wierd! I'm not trying to hurt you! I was just so worried, because we have been separated since that dungeon and I really really really missed you Zoro! And besides, I think if we fight fairly then the battle would be too long to fight here! Remember the Whiskey peak? Zoro, you gonna have to listen! Stop fighting! Why don't you remember me!?"

Zoro stopped struggling. Luffy stopped talking. But neither relaxed; they just breathed heavily.

"I don't know you." Zoro kept his glance in the too dark ceiling. Luffy didn't like what he heard and bit his lip in determination.

"Zoro gonna have to remember again." Now Zoro looked at the boy.

The young pirate cracked a smile when he finally got the older teen's attention.

Zoro almost freaked when Luffy's nose crunched up and he buried his face in Zoro's neck. When Zoro tried to grab the raven haired kid's shoulders and push him away he just stretched. "What the hell, kid! _Stop_ that!"

When Luffy's face lifted up again he was frowning in irritation. "You smell like her!"

The older teen gaped in awe. "What the… of course I smell like her! She just won't let me be!"

That apparently was the wrong thing to say because the sheer rage that emitted from Luffy was so terrifying -Zoro doesn't admit he ever said that- that even Zoro backed up as much as he could in the situation. "She won't let you _be_?"

Not entirely understanding what caused the boy's anger, Zoro came up with a compromise. "Okay, clearly I'm not understanding _anything_ you're saying, so, why won't we just discuss this like real adults? First, let go of me and we can sit up-"

"If I let Zoro go, you're just gonna make a run for your katana." Okay again, because that was just what he was actually going to do. The pirate tilted his head to the left and grinned like maniac -and for the third time Zoro's felt his stomach burn a little at the gesture-. "So no. Zoro is just going to listen to me explain everything and believe it. Ok?"

And he listened.

He heard the stories, all which heard like fairy tales when the boy would sometimes mix details and rant about something unnecessary for the plot, but Zoro listened for almost hours.

But nothing sounded familiar.

Zoro could hear him ranting more about how 'Nami' or 'Robin' would have explained it so much better, but Zoro had to stick to whatever Luffy was saying, because here was no 'Sanji' to kick his head to remembering or 'Chopper' to examine him thoroughly. Not to mention 'Usopp' could shoot an ant in between its eyes from afar, but that doesn't have anything to do with this. By the time they arrived at Saari in the story, there had sneaked a little fear to the pirate's young voice. Zoro held his face the same every bypassing second.

The pirate stopped dead in his tracks in middle of his sentence. Zoro glanced questionably at Luffy, but he wasn't looking at Zoro. Following the teens gaze he found a woman figure in long red coloured hair.

"Mugiwara no Luffy. Step away from my Zoro." And at that Zoro almost scoffed, and pointed out that both of them were quite possessive, and that nobody in fact owned him but Luffy emitted so much anger again that the words caught up in Zoro's throat.

Letting his hands whip back o their original shape Luffy, crouched protectively over Zoro.

"Zoro is not yours to take."

And, wherein that didn't wake his existing memories, something cracked in Zoro's head. Something wasn't _right_.

Siran Heidi just smirked again ominously and with a quick flick of her hand she pushed Luffy towards the water 10 meters away from where she was standing, and another ten meters away from Zoro sprawled on his back.

She had a Devil Fruit. The Motion Motion no mi; she was a movement woman with the ability to touch and move things from certain distance.

* * *

Wait, Zoro thought, a devil fruit eater and water?

_Luffy was drowning._

And? He wasn't Zoro's problem.

_What about the crack?_

Shut up. It was the wind from the movement Luffy made from flying.

_And the warm feeling when he smiled?_

He had some weird shit at lunch. Must have been stomach problems.

_And what about this instinct that you have to run after the drowning boy and drag him to shore._

That one he couldn't argue with.

And he ran after the boy he didn't know; acting on instinct to save the raven haired teen.


	6. VI

CHAPTER VI

Well, Luffy thought, that was new.

Hady Lady was standing ten meters away from Luffy, who was crouching over Zoro ,when suddenly Luffy was flying high towards water. She didn't come close to him; not even a step, but a little flick of the wrist had the raven haired boy in the air. He stretched his arm quickly in attempt of grabbing something solid in order to rebound right back to the shore, but she flicked her wrist again and his arm was pushed away from the massive rock he had attempted to wrap his arm around. At least he managed to drag in a lungful of air before he hit the cold surface; again. He couldn't seem to get rid of that particular habit. At least Zoro is there this time.

But Zoro really isn't there. Along with the cold water Luffy feels even colder feeling fill him up as the water surrounds him. Zoro has no reason to save him anymore. The calm black silence greets him once again and Luffy is left in a haze. No Zoro. He can't move and feels a little sob build up inside him.

Eons go by in the loneliness but suddenly the water ripples from the impact of another moving body.

_Huh?_

And there is Zoro. Like a reflex, his strong arms grab Luffy's chest and pull the younger boy closer to his fiery warmth. The black water doesn't feel so lonely and silent anymore. Zoro is always there for Luffy, even if he doesn't remember him.

And Luffy intends very much to have Zoro there with him in the Going Merry, like the green-haired man is supposed to be; there for him and for the rest of their crew, and not in an underground town with a crazy-ass-lady. Luffy grips Zoro's shirt from the back in determination when they finally resurface again.

* * *

The sun is still high, it isn't even two a 'clock when Nami and Usopp are guided in the Saareke's Town hall in the center of the island's town. This town, like it's ancient sister in Saari, is filled with people who oggle and give way to the sailors as they make their way to the center. Nami, especially, gets a lot of unwanted attention, Usopp chuckles. Tammi has already forgotten the fight from the earlier, and is whistling happily with Derrick and the soldier from earlier behind her. The way isn't long; Saareke is a bit smaller than Saari.

"So," The soldier starts, "The Town hall has some supplies for you: There is food, room and beds for if you want to have a little rest and some books and whatnot to kill the time as we load your ship for the necessary weaponry."

"Hey, thanks man," Usopp starts, but hesitates a bit. "What was your name again?"

Derrick answers because the man in question just glares suspiciously at Usopp. "He's Soltu. It's not like-"

But yet again, Derrick is interrupted when Tammi speaks up in her loud voice. "Soltu is my right-hand man." This makes Soltu to smile proudly a little. "He sucks at sailing," His eye twitches in irritation, "But he makes up for it in strategy planning. You know, it isn't really good to suck at sailing when our main income comes from fishing." Tammi turns to him smiling broadly. "I remember this one time when we were in the sea and he kinda-"

"SO, YEAH, the Town hall has a library, it has history of this island's surroundings, informative famous travelers log books, weather maps and more." Soltu interrupts Tammi in haste.

"Weather maps sound interesting." Nami comments; now interested. Usopp rolls his eyes.

Soltu looks relieved. "Right, that's good, they go all the way back in time, there are even records of when Saari and Saareke were united. It was really different then-"

"Wait, so Saari and Saareke were united?" Nami asks. "How did they split?"

Derrick hurries to answer the question. "It was an enormous land slide-"

"No, Derrick-boy, land slide means that land rolls down a slope, not that lands go in different directions." Tammi interrupts again. "It was a giant Lizard-Turtle who chopped the then united islands to two when the islanders had a fight and begged help from their Gods, a Lizard God for Saari's half and a Turtle God for Saareke's side. The prayer went awfully wrong and the God was united, but in its rage it split the island in two. Saareke became smaller, because the greedy Lizard God was faster to move the muscles for Saari's benefit. It is known that-"

"There is an underwater volcano towards the south from Saari and Saareke. It erupts slowly all the time and it pushes the two islands further from each other." Soltu says to Nami. "Don't worry, though, it is safe. It's been doing it for several hundreds of years." She nods in understanding.

Usopp pats Derricks head. "You were closer, buddy."

* * *

The Town hall indeed had a library. There were book shelves in several rooms from floor to roof. Nami jumped a little in happiness and anticipation when they reached the rooms. Usopp just looked slightly interested before asking if Derrick wanted to play somewhere else. Tammi went with the teen and the child, and Nami was left in the library. She sighed in contentment, who could resist this much information? She grabbed the nearest interesting book and saw that Soltu was standing in the middle of the room.

"Lady, do you mind if I join you in your reading? Maybe I can help you find the most beneficial books if you tell me what you wish to read?"

Nami smiled, "I don't mind you being here."

The man looked like he had found someone who understood the value of books, and didn't just think the books were just there for amusement. Maybe Tammi didn't read that much. In fact, Nami wonders if she even reads.

* * *

The next time Soltu notices what the time is when Usopp, Derrick and Tammi come in the room and tell them that food has been ready for a while now and that the cargo is just almost ready to go.

Soltu sighs in submission. Nami-san is the first person he has talked to who hasn't just smiled and nodded at him like they don't understand a word he is saying. But now that he thinks about it, it's about twelve at night. The cargo is bound to be ready in no time; just when Soltu finally found someone who actually understood him.

Nami is silent during the meal. Usopp doesn't like to see Nami this silent; she's plotting for sure. But his fears are soon gone when she speaks up again after the meal; when they are informed that the weapons are in Going Merry.

"I need to spend the night in here. I have an idea and it needs more time."

Usopp looks at her. He knew she had been plotting. "So, what is this idea of yours?"

"It's incomplete. I need more time." Nami says, counting something in her head the same time. "In the morning, it will be ready. Tammi," Nami turns to the person in question, who looks completely surprised by the redhead's serious tone of voice. Nami grins victoriously and sets her elbow on the table and her chin in her palm. "It will please you too, so if you'll kindly grant us permission to plan it here? It might take awhile, but you'll see in the morning."

Tammi also puts her elbow on the table and her other hand on her hip and looks at the burglar. "Can ye enlighten me and let us a sneak peak at your plan?"

The victorious smile widens on Nami's face. "I'll get your soldiers to Saari under wraps."

"Under wraps," Tammi repeats intelligently.

"Under wraps. Not a soul will see you invading." Nami sips elegantly from her glass of water.

"All my soldiers? Sorry to break it to you, sugar, but the sea doesn't cover us that well when we sail to Saari. They'll see us coming miles away, and Pikol won't know when to attack from the inside when the time is favorable."

Nami raises her left eyebrow. "I take it you've planned out something with Pikol the last time you saw him?"

"Yea, when there'd be enough weapons under, we would attack from the sea and rebels would attack from the inside when signaled."

"I think this is quite good plan coming from your end," Nami commented and continued the speech before she would realize the backhanded compliment. "But I have a better one. One night, Tammi." She raised her pointer finger to count the nights she would have to wait to attack them head on. "With a plan and assistance from our end."

The black-haired woman looked suspicious of the last comment. "Why would ye help us in the first place," She asked; again with the not-really-a-question questions.

"The rebels have our captain and first mate so we agreed on helping you help them out."

Accepting the reason, Tammi leaned over the table. "Let Soltu plan it with you and I'll grant you the time and the shelter you need. He knows what meh morals are and what I will and won't accept in this operation."

Nami nodded in agreement. "I'd like to have a second opinion on the other half of the plans."

Tammi stood up, Nami following right behind and the rest of the dining occupants remained seated and witnessed the two ladies shake each other's hand.

"Usopp, you better get back your strength by sleeping. Soltu-san, please follow me." Nami excused herself from the room.

Soltu sat still for a few seconds, wondering what had been wrong with the earlier plan Tammi had told Nami-san about, because it hadn't been Tammi's planning work but Soltu's. He sighed again, but mostly out of not being able to comprehend the pirate woman's mind, and followed right after her.

* * *

Nami felt good about herself. She's so utterly awesome that she even underestimated herself.

Okay, maybe Soltu had some part in the fact that they had finished planning and explaining each other information about everything in just mere three hours. She could even sleep tonight because Soltu had gone to tell the soldiers their part in the plan, so she went to bed.

So when the morning came she called Sanji.

*Gotcha*

"Sanji, do you hear me?"

"YEEEES, NAMI-_SWAAN~_!"

"In addition to what we have planned, we are going to have to delay the departure, because we've got a new plan instead of what we had agreed on. Hear me out…"

* * *

Heidi watches when her Zoro dive in after the pirate.

Unacceptable.

_"Maybe it's a reflex, Heidi-sama. " Mauri says. "He has been with his captain for so long time with that a female figure doesn't click right with his physical memory. You have to get him used to You."_

_She frowns in annoyance. Mauri feels a spike of fear climb up his spine. Could it be? He has done this before, but those times he had made sure about it. With Roronoa- he had glanced Heidi-sama and now Mauri wasn't sure anymore._

_"Yeah, Heidi-sama, You just have to get him used to You and he will eventually forget the physical things he felt before. Don't worry."_

_Mauri's mouth went dry. He tried to swallow a few times in case he needs to talk again, but she just took off. Okay, good, good, Mauri needed to collect his thoughts. It was…_

_80% in less than half a minute. That is when he looked at Heidi-sama, for five seconds, and then Roronoa had his eyes open. Five seconds is just enough for 20% to load. Except if it wasn't?_

_Mauri almost blacks out from fear._

* * *

Is this physical memory too? Dive after the anchor kid without another glance?

That doesn't feel right. Heidi glares at the spot from where her Zoro and the annoying kid had gone. Maybe it was time to force her way into her Zoro's 'physical memory.'

* * *

Zoro fills his lungs with air as soon as they're above. Well, fuck, Heidi tried to kill this brat and now he went on his merry way and saved the teen. She would be pissed. Better not to go to shore there.

He starts to make long, strong strokes to deeper parts of the maze and its darkness. Not after he had swam fifteen meters he heard a low splash of something by the shore. He glances back and sees Heidi push a small boat to the water to chase after them. It will probably even be easy for her, because if she moved the boat with her abilities she would reach them in no time. "Hey, kid!" Zoro calls for the younger boy. He lethargically reacts by mumbling something into Zoro's hand which is keeping the boy over the water. "I need you to try to reach my katana, which, thanks to you are by the shore." Zoro says rather angrily. This doesn't seem too good.

The raven-haired boy mumbles again something and readjusts sloppily onto a better angle on Zoro and swings his right hand in order to get some speed to the cold arm. The fist goes off to the shore and Zoro concentrates on getting away from the threat called Heidi. He chuckles to himself without a hint of amuse. Since when has he tried to swim _away_ from his swords to save someone? And _why _exactly is he trying to save this boy again?

Nevertheless Luffy's arm comes back. "I c-cant reach them, she's messing with my arm."

Fucking fuck.

Cursing again because he hit the surface of a ferry with his fingers and it hurt. Realizing he now has somewhat solid ground under him he splatters up the ferry the pirate still in his arms and runs towards the darkness in the disappearing dim light. Too soon the ferry ends, but he doesn't realize it until he is again in the water after falling off from the ferry. Then he swims again, his muscles starting to burn from the exhaustion.

Blindly he coincidentally finds another ferry after losing his sense (or the small amount of what he already had) of direction many times over and over. "Zoro, put me down, I can fight her on solid ground." Luffy orders, and Zoro complies.

"Did you think that _I_ really can't fight her because _my katana are on the center island_." Zoro panted.

But the future Pirate King didn't have time to answer because Heidi had caught up with them swiftly and silently, like a shark. She had a similar kind of glint in her eyes, like a hunter and her prey.

"So, guess this is the end of cat-and-the-mouse game? You're right, it was getting kind of boring," she taunted.

"What did you do to Zoro?" Luffy asked ominously.

"Me?" She let her perfect eyebrows rise in derision. "_I_ didn't do anything."

"So who did and how can we reverse it?" Luffy raised his fists to a fighting pose.

She raised her eyebrows again and pulled her mouth down from the edges. "Who knows? But I am getting tired of _you_." And at that she pointed at Luffy, making a sharp piercing motion. Luffy coughed in surprise.

She had, with her ability, tried to pierce through Luffy's neck. If Luffy would've been in the dungeons when Utif died, he would have recognized the killing gesture. She was taken aback by the lack of...well, killing. "What was your Devil fruit again?" She asked incredulously.

"Gomu gomu no mi and I'm a rubberman." Luffy coughed a few times more.

"Rubber…"

Heidi's Achilles Heel. She could bend the rubber but it won't break under her touch. Heidi cursed like a sailor and thought for a second.

It couldn't be helped. But she had to do something about him anyways. Maybe this would be the right way to make her familiar with him also. Mauri could erase the memories anyways.

She turned to Zoro and with a flick of her hand made his leg face the wrong way.


	7. VII

A/N: So sorry for the involuntary hiatus (real life is a bitch and I kinda lost my interest for awhile), but trust on the fact that I will literally die than leave this story unfinished (nothing worse than given up-fics)… Thank you for reading and waiting and after this just one more to go!

CHAPTER VII

Of fucking course. Of _fucking _course.

Rubber bends- which meant Heidi couldn't attack the pirate, so she decided to attack Zoro instead? What was the _fucking_ point of that!?

Zoro had collapsed as the bone had made an awful cracking sound; there went his mobility. His body is rife with a throbbing pain as he clutches his leg in weak attempt at dulling the pain. Maybe he should've twisted it back so that his toes faced his _front _instead of his _back_.

Meanwhile Zoro hears the pirate cry out in rage and halfheartedly wonders why the kid cares if the chick he had known since childhood had just mercilessly fucked with his leg.

Then he remembers the kid going on and on about their adventures together.

But he also remembers a life together with Heidi.

And like that, Zoro doesn't know what to think anymore.

* * *

Usopp hadn't believed Nami when she had told Sanji all of those things via den-den mushi that morning.

Even when they had prepared the ships to sail, he hadn't quite believed her.

It was when it was actually time to act that his disbelief was broken and even by then it was too late.

"Why do we have to go first?" he moaned. "Merry is bigger than the other ships, so why should the biggest go first? What if we get stuck? Poor merry has been through a lot and now you want her to do this too?" Usopp whined while walking behind Nami on Merry's deck while she reviewed her mental list of things that had to be done before departure.

"Usopp," Nami said, stopping just before the figure head. Derrick, Tammi, Soltu and some other soldiers were standing just to the side of them on Merry and there were a fleet of about 15 boats behind Merry in a neat line. "stop complaining. It's already too late."

Below them, Usopp heard the rush of the ocean and yelped in a very manly manner just before Merry caught the current and went faster than ever before into some sort of drop-off –one that resembled a hole- in the center of the ocean to the north of the Saareke.

_"The plan," _Nami had told Sanji, _"is to attack from under Saari. The Labyrinths had been mapped by the people of Saareke a long time ago, and I discovered their papers yesterday when I was reading their books. We will travel there through these labyrinths and you will need to cause some ruckus in the Upper Saari after, or around, four o'clock. We'll leave Saareke in the morning and be there after four to stir up the rebellion from Under Saari. We'll meet you in the middle."_

_Then Tammi had piped in, "How many comrades are there in Upper Saari to waiting for y'all?"_

_"Three," Nami had answered. The navigator gently slapped the other woman's upper arm when she realized what her worried look was about,"Our comrades in Upper Saari aren't to be underestimated. They'll hold their ground and we'll come to their help. Luffy and Zoro aren't the only ones with bounties. Our archeologist, Robin, is also worth 79 000,000 berries."_

_Tammi sucked in a nervous breath, "Okay, let's start the departing preparations," she said and stormed off to give some orders to her crew._

Usopp had believed at the time that she had been nervous about taking over Saari in order to put the end to the rebellion and monarchy, but now Usopp believed she had been scared of the _black hole leading straight down to the freaking gates of hell and of getting lost in the labyrinths, and dying from a of lack of sun, and of their skeletons being left there forever and-_

"Stop thinking Usopp. I can hear everything you're imagining," Nami slapped him not-so-gently on the back of his head from their place where they were hanging on the railing for their dear lives.

"But _Nami_, we are going underwater to travel to a battle that isn't even our own!" Okay, not hundred percent true- it had become their battle the second some idiot had fired a cannon at their captain, but that was a little exaggeration for you.

"It's all under control, dear sniper of ours, I'm leading the lines to battle, so there's no need to worry. I've got it all planned."

And then they heard the unnatural screech of something inhuman.

"Hey, Candyhead!" Tammi shouted -and Usopp wouldn't agree if someone were say that her shout was manlier than his yelp from before- to Nami.

"What?" Nami shouted back, clutching the railing harder than required.

"Did you have a plan for the Fefi?"

* * *

It turned out that Fefi was shortened version of 'Fearsome Fishes', also called Ferocious Fishes sometimes.

"How the hell _I_ should have known the fauna in these labyrinths were different from the sea above!?" Nami whispered aggressively to Usopp in the darkness.

"This is bad. If we can't use any light then we might get lost soon, but if we _use_ the light then it'll attract the Fefi like a candle flame to moths!" Nami continued to aggressively whisper, trying to solve their new problem, "It has worked to this point by calculating the speed and the distance between turns, but soon there has to be some sharp turns and possible reefs, the other ships need to go exactly from the same spot after us or they'll either get lost or crash."

The second she has said it aloud Tammi informs the fleet via den-dens of the dangers. She doesn't get to the end of her report before another ear-splitting screech echoes in the tunnels. And due to echos they can't determine where the origin of the sound is.

That thought is cut off by a thud against their sailing.

"Now it starts. We have no choice but to light up the front of the ship," Nami jumped up and fetched a lamp from inside while Usopp prepared a lantern to hold it up with and Tammi gave the fleet the order of lighting them up. Nami rushed to the front, gave the lamp to Usopp to light and crouched forward to double check the map for the right direction. Usopp had already lit the lamp and put it at the head of the lantern and held it for Nami to see the waves and tides and the reefs.

The journey continued for another fifteen minutes before anything happened. Dead silence hung over the fleet and the continued silence made the soldiers edgy in anticipation.

Suddenly the Fefi crashed from nowhere onto the second ship just behind Merry-gou.

Tammi, the hero of Merry, saw the second ship's attack and grabbed her weapon, a giant club with needles sticking out of it, to stop a green-black fish from chomping off a piece of the Mugiwara's ship.

Then the hell broke loose.

Soldiers shouted both encouragements and screams of terror and of bravery and cheered when they hit, miss or get chomped by a Fefi; but the ships were getting off course and Nami had trouble steering Merry in the least damaging way possible. The Fefi were barely getting held off at bay by the fierce defense of the Saareke soldiers. Usopp gave the lamp to Derrick so that the kid could hold it for Nami so that Usopp could go help in the battle as much as he could.

Soltu wielded a hukari and he slashed at a red Fefi when it came too close to Nami. But Derrick couldn't concentrate on holding the lamp with all the action and shouting around them in the dark.

Another fish got hit and landed on the deck just behind Nami. She yelped and look at the battle around her.

"When did you mention to us that these fish could _fly in the air!?_" Nami shouted in disbelief when she saw that the fish's attacks had come from the ceiling instead of the sea.

"Evolution had made the fishes into flying creatures. They sleep in the holes in the ceiling somewhere around the labyrinth and they don't like the smell of curry," Derrick explained helpfully.

"Oh my _God_, what's going on in here!" Nami exclaimed and screamed in surprise when the red fish slapped around the deck in order to get into the air again. Nami and Derrick scurried closer to each other when the fish tensed in preparation of flight but it stopped suddenly when it noticed something that didn't catch Nami's eye. Then it tensed again but instead of going straight to the darkness outside the ship it bounced to the mandarin trees to inspect them further.

"Oh _no_ you _don't!_" Nami's body reacted to her rage rather than her fear and she ran the few meters to the trees and started kicking the fish to keep it from chomping on her trees. The kicks, of course, don't work so she looked around for a weapon.

No weapon in sight but an Usopp to her left.

"Usopp!" Nami shouted and Usopp took notice of her as she ran towards him. First the long-nosed boy thought that she was angry at him for some illogical reason, but as she got closer to him he saw the fish munching on her trees.

He had no idea what Nami might have had in mind, because he hadn't managed to scare off a single fish from his dear ship and so he was taken by surprise when she grabbed his slingshot from him and grabbed some random bullets from his bag. She was so blinded by rage that she didn't even care what she had in her hand and she shot whatever she loaded on the weapon at the fish in question.

The shot hit the fish square in its chest and it was blasted off of the ship.

All of the other fish freeze for a full three seconds before backing off from the fleet in horror, crashing into each other in their escape attempt.

"Nami! You used Kayaku Boshi! That's genius!" Usopp cheered.

"The Gunpowder Star?" Nami asked in awe. "Lucky shot, I guess, but if my trees are damaged I'm going to sue the whole world to the…" She didn't get to tell where she would sue the world because a major bump reminded them that the journey wasn't over yet.

* * *

Five twists of her hand forward break five of Zoro's fingers. They look incredibly uncomfortable, to say the least.

Another bigger twist of her hand in sideways motion twists the same broken leg back forward again. Zoro's shouts at the new rush of pain and thinks that the broken bones must be digging into new muscles.

Multiple index finger stabs pierce through Zoro's torso, and after each air stab he gets a new wound on his body. Those, at least, don't get a shout out of him. Luffy, meanwhile, is having so much trouble concentrating on the task at hand and not shielding his first mate's body from further damage.

She is one sly snake; dodging each of Luffy's attacks while just now breaking sweat, and she had just barely started to breathe heavily. Luffy ushers his body to warm up faster so that he can take her out and get Zoro to Chopper.

Another cry of pain from Zoro has Luffy glancing at his first mate to look at which body part took hit this time. No outer change but the wounds he has right now are already too much.

"Why are you attacking Zoro when it's me you're fighting!" Luffy shouts to her, his anger boiling overboard.

"You mean attacks against him aren't attacks against you?" She cackles in delight and throws a rock at Zoro's head without touching it. The stone hits Zoro in his temple when he catches a breath to collect his thoughts- making his forehead bleed.

And that's it. Freezing or feeling weak from salt water doesn't stop Luffy anymore, and he picks up speed, forcing her to focus more on dodging his attacks.

It's not going to be enough for her to dodge Luffy's rage, though.

This next hit, Luffy can already feel it hitting her face, and breaking that perfect nose and those cheek bones. She seems to realize it too, and her dark eyes widen slightly in realization.

But the Movement Movement berry really is a bother.

The fist is about five centimeters from her face when she raises both of her hands to stop the attack with her ability. Luffy curses under his breath and puts his weight on his left leg in order to get his right leg behind him and get some strength behind the kick. She doesn't see the shift and his leg catches her right in the ribs. The contact feels nice even though it doesn't make her bones crunch in satisfying manner.

Hady Lady flies off several meters to his left towards the water, before she can stop the attack. Her face is scrunched up in furious expression and she starts to throw loose rocks at Luffy. He dodges them with no problems whatsoever and stretches his arms in an attempt to grab her throat but she bounces the hand off its course without effort, so he darts forward instead.

Luffy leaps the last meters in the air and Hady Lady crouches to avoid his him. Already predicting his movement, Luffy strikes his legs down in a fast attack "Spear!" he shouts out. She rolls narrowly from under him, not getting hit and he bounces off the ground to continue the attack.

"Gatling!" Echoes in the caves as Luffy warms up the first rounds of the strike. Not any of the hits actually hit her, when suddenly an unexpected screech takes them all by surprise and a giant shape drops down with a thunderous boom at the ferry they are currently fighting at.

"Fefi!" Luffy hears Zoro breathe out loud.

The shape is a giant, green-black fish that's still partly in the water because it's so massive. It doesn't look particularly friendly.

With a screech it hits the ground with its enormous head in attempt to smash them all to pancakes. Luffy makes a beeline at Zoro to wrap the older man around his flexible arm many times. At the same time he shoots out his other hand to grab the fish's fin before it actually flattens them.

They are up in the air when the fish's head encounters the ferry and destroys it, and the ferry they all stood a second ago ceases to exist.

Luffy takes another second to confirm the location of his nemesis and he sees her in a boat trying to keep up in the after waves of the head crush. Luffy grabs a better hold of Zoro and the fish and stretches his leg far above their heads in the darkness of the cave's roof.

"AXE!"

A boom bigger than the fish made is echoing this time through the caves as Luffy brings his leg down faster than the eye can see in this darkness and the Fefi smashes it's head against the crumbled ferry. This time aftershocks take a longer time to wind down. The force of the attack leaves the fish stunned for several minutes in which Luffy is standing on top of it to locate the woman once more. Just when he sees her again, the fish moves under him, making it clear that it's still conscious.

"You need to hit it's gills, Luffy." Zoro points out. So Luffy stretches his leg up in the air again, this time aiming for the opening and closing gap in the Fefi's side.

The hit draws blood from the gills, and this time the fish stays down for good.

Then Luffy feels the force of the movement movement berry in his chest and he is pushed off of the slippery body of the fish. At least he understands to let go of Zoro so that his wounds won't get wet with salt water. His hand is snapped at the figure near the fish in a boat. Luffy's fast eyes managed to see her and his hand wraps around her throat.

They both go underwater and the cold saltwater is there to greet them once again.


End file.
